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Tales of Banks Peninsula

No. 3 – Little Akaloa

page 282

No. 3 – Little Akaloa.

One would naturally think Akaloa was a corruption of Akaroa. Sonae of those who have been connected with the settlement of this Bay, state that it received its name from a resemblance to Akaroa, and also its position, as it lies directly opposite the harbour. The oldest settlers declare, however, that Akaloa was the original Maori name.

No Maoris have actually dwelt in the Bay since it has been settled. A great many of them, however, lived at the Long Look out, and during the raid of the North Island Maoris on the Peninsula tribes, Maoris came from all the Bays round to Little Akaloa for shelter They hid in the bush, and on the ridges between the Bays. There was a great slaughter on the Long Look-out, in which the local natives were almost annihilated. Traces of this event can be found on slopes of the cape.

The first settlers to arrive were Messrs. Bennetts and Rix, fathers of the settlers of those names who used to live in and about the Bay. Before they came there were sawyers in Little Akaloa, which, like the other Bays, was a refuge for runaway sailors and men of all descriptions. Seventeen or eighteen pit sawyers were once at work on the timber in the Bay. Messrs. Bennetts and Rix came from Wellington with Captain Thomas. The latter was a Government surveyor, and came to lay out Lyttelton and Christchurch. This was in 1850. Messrs, Bennetts and Rix came to Little Akaloa to saw timber for Captain Thomas. In September of the same year Mr. George Ashton arrived. Mr. Jones came soon afterwards, and purchased the first section of land sold in the Bay from the Canterbury Association. Mr. G. Ashton resided on part of it. Amos Green, commonly known as Toby Green, was an early settler. He was a cripple. It seems he escaped from a whaling ship, and fled to the Maoris, with whom he lived for some time. Two settlers came to the pah and engaged him for work on their land, and as he was stepping out of the boat he stepped on to a loaded gun, which page 283shot him through the leg He was always a cripple afterwards, though he did a great deal towards settling Little Akaloa. Mr. George Boleyn, father of the late Mr. James Boleyn, of Stoney Bay; Mr. McHale, of Raupo Bay; and the Waghorns were also very early settlers.

As everywhere else on the Peninsula, the bush was very dense in Li tie Akaloa; indeed it was perhaps more thickly covered than any other Bay. Mr. G Ashton possessed a photograph of the Bay in those early days. It is greatly different from the present appearance of the locality, showing the settlement on the beach, and the valley and hills covered with heavy timber. It was a hard day's work to penetrate a mile in the bush, and find your way back again. It came thick down to the water's edge. Akaloa abounded in very fine pines and totaras, and gave plenty of employment to the numbers of pit sawyers who flocked there. A sawmill was built about 1860 by Messrs A. Waghorn, McIntosh and Turner, Mr. McIntosh afterwards became sole owner. A man named Fenley, who had had charge of the mill in Duvauchelle, then managed it Messrs Brown and Fraser afterwards took the mill from them. They started the public house in a building which had been intended for a dwelling house. The firm was in existence in Christchurch some years afterwards. The sawmill found work for many years, as valuable timber covered the whole surface of the valley. A tramway ran afterwards right up to the head of the Bay on nearly the same site on which the road now runs.

Messrs W. Pawson, H McIntosh and J. McIntoph cut the first track over to Duvauchelle's: Bay, commonly known as Shaw's line. It ran on the opposite side of the valley to that on which the present road lies. Mr. George Boleyn and Mr. John Bennett cut the first track to Okain's. The manner in which a road was tested in those days, to judge whether the contractors had done their work in a proper manner, was by taking a bullock along it laden with clay This was done to test the track to Okain's. The Rev. Mr. Torlesse, clergyman at Okain's and Little Akaloa, was judge, and his report was unfavour-page 284able, and he wouldn't pass it This gentleman got the church built in Okain's, and was schoolmaster there also. He frequently came to Little Akaloa, and preached in the open air. Mr Waghorn's barn was then used as a place of worship. Bishops Selwyn and Harper both preached in this barn. The former anchored off the Bay in his schooner, and put a boat ashore. The inhabitants all collected on the beach, eager to see who their visitors were. On the boat arriving, the Bishop called out, "Do you know who I am? I am Bishop Selwyn, the travelling Bishop," and be jumped first out of the boat up to his middle, and helped drag her ashore. He then went up to the barn, and preached to them, and also christened several children who are now residents in the Bay. He did not stay long, but left behind him a great admiration for his abilities and plain speaking. Bishop Harper paid periodical visits to the Bay. In 1862 the schoolroom was built, Mr Bishop being the first master. In the following year the building was made the church, and was used for that purpose for many years. The new church is between Little Akaloa and Chorlton.

In 1853 Toby Green started the first dairy on the place where Messrs Waghorn now live. Mr G. Ashton soon followed his example, and as the bush was cleared so were fresh dairies commenced. Mr G. Ashton kept up regular communication with the outside world by sailing a whale boat between Little Akaloa and Lyttelton, and carrying the mails. He also carried the Okain's mail, which he conveyed by the track, and rough times he had now and then. The main road to Duvauchelle was made about 1868, and was a great [unclear: boon] to the inhabitants.

Of course there were some heavy bush fires in Little Akaloa, but no harm is known to have been done, as the settlers were always on the alert expecting them. The historical fire which spread from Pigeon Bay about forty-five years ago will not be soon forgotten by those who were in the Bay at the time. It was difficult for days to breathe in the smoky atmosphere, Like the rest of the Peninsula in the early times, provisions in the shape of page 285wild pigs, birch, fresh and salt water fish were plentiful, and we are assured they were needed, as it was difficult to get anything in the Bay at the time of its settlement. Whalers sometimes came into Little Akaloa, but they did not stay long, their principal places of stoppage being Port Levy and Akaroa.

Mr. T. Duncan, who died about the year 1892 in Christchurch, was the first who settled in Decanter Bay, afterwards owned by Mr. W. Ashton, but since sold by him. There was a Maori pah on Decanter beach, and it was these Maoris who acted as guides to the pioneers of the other bays, having an intuitive knowledge of the way to reach them through the trackless forest

The tidal wave was felt here, as elsewhere on that side of the Peninsula, pretty severely. A vessel, by name the Struggler, had been wrecked just before this, and endeavours were being made to float her again. The wave took her away up the flat, then out to sea and back again, not doing the least damage to her. Mr. McIntosh's house was battered about, and one end of it was lifted up bodily by the water, the piles being washed away from underneath it. It is considered that, if the water had risen half an inch more, it would have wrecked the house completely, as the wave would have come through the front windows. A sandy deposit was left all over the flat, and the houses there had half an inch of mud on the floors. The real harm done. however, was very trivial to what might have been expected.

Very few casualties have occurred in Little Akaloa. The vessels Minnie, Rambler, Caledonia and Mary Ann Christina, the latter a schooner built in the Bay, as also was the ketch Minnie, were at times driven ashore while employed in taking timber to Lyttelton. The wreck of the brig, Clematis, was off the Long Look out. It was a calm clear day, and she ran close in to the Look out to shorten her voyage to Lyttelton. She struck on a sunken rock, and stuck there. The crew left her, and she stayed in that position for a day or two, when a fresh sea came and broke her up. The place where she struck was very close under the headland, and it was peculiarly daring of the page 286captain to attempt so short a cut The rock is a sunken one, about five or six feet under, and the sea breaks on it when there is any wind. It seems remarkable that she struck in the only place where there was no escape.

The old wharf was built about thirty six or thirty seven years ago; a Mr. Barnes was the contractor. It was in a position, however, where it was totally undefended from the sea. The new wharf is in a more secured place, and there is deeper water off it.

Perhaps the most exciting event in the Bay was the burning down of the public-houses, and it is no doubt fresh in the memory of most of our readers The first building was unoccupied when burnt. A bar was fitted at once in an out house. This met the same fate. A stable was then used, and that was also burnt, and no more attempts to sell liquor were made. The daring incendiaries, whoever they were, must have been wide awake to escape detection.

The great floods were perhaps more severely felt in Little Akaloa than elsewhere, and were attended with loss of life. a child of Mr. May's being drowned, and another narrowly escaping. The creek bed was so clogged with debris that it dammed itself continually, and the water came down in great waves. Mr. William Ashton lived on the flat, and the creek made a bend round his dwelling. An outhouse, which a day or two before had been filled with provisions, was completely washed away to sea. Mr. Aphton would not leave his house for some time, but finding the creek was dammed above, and fearing danger he shifted over to his father's house, the bridge by which he made his escape going half an hour afterwards. In the morning he found the house completely undermined and unfit for habitation, and he was indeed lucky to have taken his family and himself out of danger. The roads for a considerable period afterwards bore testimony of tbe havoc done, several bridges being washed away.

Little Akaloa is a happy valley, and now the bush is all cleared is tbe home of many settlers, who do not regret their choice. Cheese, grass-seed and wool are the chief exports, and a good quantity of firewood even now finds its way out of the Bay.